No Governor

[BrianX128 109]

I've got an old 11 or 12 or 12.5 Briggs [not sure] that just decided to no longer have a governor the other day. I had thought it was getting tired and losing compression as the rpms would drop mowing up hill and fly up when going downhill. I looked up how to set the governor and it was already fully turned clockwise. Someone on another post said to put the engine at idle and rev it up by hand and feel if you can tell if there is any feedback through the shaft of the governor. There's nothing. I can tell on all my old kohlers that "something" is happening inside when I do the same test. Is there any better way to tell? Looks like tearing into this might be a winter project. All linkage is correct. It runs perfect, tried 2 different carbs just in case to rule that out and exact same behavior. 

[BrianX128 109]

Ah great.. tore it apart and I don't see anything wrong:

 

The little metal wings are free and push the center section out. I couldn't tell if it was on the threads or not, I was dumb and grabbed it to look at it before looking at anything else. I don't see anything that would have kept it from working? 

[wallfish 18,461]

4 hours ago, BrianX128 said:

I don't see anything that would have kept it from working

Look for whatever that pin pushes on. (Gov shaft)

[BrianX128 109]

Hmmm wait a minute...

 

Look at that indent on the housing from the cotterpin. That's embedded at wide open throttle so it would want to rest there and would struggle to push back towards idle. I got a dremel and made that all a flat surface. 

 

Also I don't have a picture but the hole the governor/ oil slinger rides on was egg shaped and would allow it to move "in" which would take away from its ability to fight high throttle even if the weights were pushing. I just ordered another one even though I think the main moving parts on this one are fine.